*Amazon *Barnes & Noble *Kindle *Goodreads *Libraries *More​

About FreeBird Express publishing

Formerly NewAge Publishing, begun in 2015, FreeBird Express Publishing established its new name in 2018 to better express its objective of providing writing, editing, and publication services for EVERYONE – not just writers or authors, in its Everyone Has a Story to Tell feature– while maintaining 100 % rights, 100 % royalties, if applicable, and 100 % freedom in today’s publishing world. The Phoenix logo represents the rising, falling, and rebirth of the publishing industry to include self-published and indie authors and every day people alongside those traditionally published.

Advice and support, how to’s, tips and tricks, and Q & A’s are free for all, and critiquing, proofreading, editing, formatting, cover design, and other writing services are available to all. Publication is based on the discretion of Freebird Express Publishing, the material provided, and current submission and market needs. FreeBird Express Publishing is NOT a self-publishing house that requires up-front payment; rather, it offers a variety of options and flexibility specific to a person’s needs.

You do not have to be an author or a writer to submit your story or to schedule an appointment to discuss your story. Everyone deserves a voice. Everyone deserves to be heard. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone deserves to have it shared, whether to the people that matter the most, or to the world. Please see SUBMISSION GUIDELINES to start your journey to publication today.​freebirdexpresspublishing@gmail.com

A note from Almondie Shampine about the birth of Freebird Express Publishing (formerly NewAge Publishing) and it’s ‘Everyone has a story to tell’ feature.Follow The Starving Artist BlogIt seems like yesterday when I first began writing-for-publication at 18 years old. I’d known I loved to write and read in childhood, but those early years are the times when the world is our playground, and that playground is free, so I also wanted to be on Broadway, though I never wanted to live in the big city, and I wanted to be a Microbiologist to find the cure for cancer, despite being legally blind without my coke-bottle magnifying-lenses glasses. And by the time I was in college, I wanted to be a Psychologist and help people, so I signed up to the Air Force for that free college education, but before I could get to boot camp, I learned that I was to be a Mom instead! (1 month later, 9/11 happened, and war was declared).

This was when I decided to start writing-for-publication. Back in 2001, things were a bit different than it is today. Email queries were unheard of. You had to print out the query, the synopsis, and whatever chapters they asked for, and snail-mail it, paying for both the postage there and an SASE for their response. If the agent or publisher was interested, they’d request the entire manuscript. By some extraordinary miracle, my very first type-written novel, the “Strength Series’ inspired by V.C. Andrews, was requested by a publisher, so I printed out all 400 full-length pages and sent it. At that time, I didn’t realize how rare or profound it was to get a positive response so quickly, especially on my very first type-written novel. Just as rare as it was in that time to become a teenage author.

It was rejected and returned, however, and I was left with 400 pages of manuscript to sit in a box, in addition to thousands and thousands of manuscript pages and novels written that accumulated throughout the years. The worst part was: By the time I received my first heart-breaking rejection, I’d already written two other novels in the ‘Strength Series’ at a time when floppy disks became obsolete, and I lost all my written-novels that I didn’t print out and the Strength Series died, just like that. I pored over that manuscript hundreds of times, trying to figure out why it got rejected, and it took me until 30 years old to figure out, after I realized I had amnesia from 7 to 14 years old. That 7-year gap in my memory played out with my 7-year-old character, so she went from being a normal 7-year-old to an 8-year-old living a 14-year-old’s existence. My own memory losses had resulted in the first and worst rejection I’d ever received while being tormented by the knowing that the writing had been good enough for a publisher to want.

But at the time of not realizing why I got rejected, I took it as not being good enough, so I took every class and course I could, becoming certified in children’s literature, freelancing, editing and reading every book and magazine I could find on perfecting myself. Then, at 19 years old, my children’s story ‘Monster Down the Street’ was accepted for publication in a Children’s Literary Anthology with a contract that said ‘non-profit’, but I was so excited to have my writing go to national schools that I didn’t even care I wouldn’t get paid. … Until my handful of rejections became several dozen. Every novel I wrote – rejected!

It took until 22 to achieve my next publication, after my daughter was born, a vamp-erotica short that the publisher had requested that paid $.60 per book sold, Intrusion, but when the first two buyers were my district attorney and my daughter’s lawyer, while I was in the midst of a child custody battle and the victim defense in criminal court proceedings, I quickly pulled that book off the shelves.

And then, while tripling up on college courses as a Psych major to get my Bachelors degree, it wasn’t until I was 24 before I was accepted by another publisher for another anthology, ‘Memoirs of Meanness’. Low and behold, that contract stated ‘non-profit’ too, and was to go toward anti-bullying measures in schools.

So 6 years writing professionally, three published books by three different publishers, a writing portfolio that vouched for writing, editing, freelancing certifications left-and-right, over 40 published articles, newsletters, poems, and a couple of contest winners, 4.0’s in a Bachelor’s degree I’d gotten in a little over 2 years, and I’d made zilch! While sitting on a hundred rejections on just one novel, alone, let alone all the rejections for my other novels and works. But I just kept writing – novel after novel after novel – and by the time I was 30, I can honestly say I’ve probably been rejected between 3-400 times traditionally while having a 10% success rate in publications.

Not saying I didn’t get accepted by publishing houses and small presses that asked for money up front, because I did, but self-publishing was taboo back then, and anyone who even thought about doing it was basically advised that their writing career would be over and a traditional publisher would never look at them again. Not to mention, it was expensive and being a single mom of two young-uns didn’t afford me much. When the market changed, and Indie publishing started becoming more and more popular, I was a little late in jumping on that band wagon, because I still maintained old views. I wanted the respect and the pride that most serious writers want, a contract with a good-sized publisher, and a huge advance payment that would take me from broke author to author-holding-a-big-fat-check that I could mail a copy to everyone that rejected me with a ‘Suck it’ note. Because I didn’t just have the writer’s passion. I had the writer’s dream. You know, that one where you make enough to finally become that full-time writer and are able to make a full-time career out of it.

I had queried every agency in the Writer’s Market guide, plus all the ones I could search up on the internet and find in writer’s magazines, based on their guidelines and preferred genre, of course, alongside my writing portfolio that detailed my education and training and every article, short-story, newsletter, poem, book I’d ever published while also having interned as a contributing editor and writer for a magazine, and over and over again, I’d get the same thing. “Your manuscript seems marketable, and there’s definitely an audience for your writing, but we are not taking on any new clients at this time.”

14 years I’d spent writing professionally, at this point, and I’d picked up freelancing and editing and writing other people’s works to make the extra money I needed. I had a bigger drive than most, I think, because it wasn’t just my passion pushing me. It was being a single Mom and having my kids be raised by babysitters while I worked 2-3 jobs to finance the bills, while having a medical condition that flared up more and more frequently as I became older that my jobs wouldn’t be able to accommodate. It took until I was 28 for the doctors to figure out what it was and by 31, I was declared totally disabled, while still being a single mom and the sole-income to support my family.

Only then did I go the Indie route of publishing. I’m a stickler on knowing everything I can possibly know about everything, which can be difficult in a world that is constantly changing where technology becomes obsolete within a year, so I researched everything I needed to know, everything I needed to do; once again, read everything I could get my hands on, took webinars and classes and courses, and then I went ALL-IN, and I will never go back. I published 10 books in two years, and I can probably say that those were the best and brightest two years in my life, because it was SO exciting! When I hit the #1 Bestseller Amazon rank in my genre and category with my first book, my tears were free-flowing while I had the biggest smile on my face. It was probably pretty creepy-looking. My second book hit #2 and my third book hit #1, but I’d used up all my excitement on the first one. Firsts of everything are so short-lived, but they’re glorious in the moment, and priceless for life – just like the first day I opened the box to my first hardcover novel – the one and only edition I gave to my son. I felt like a superstar.

My first author event, I made $130 in 2 hours, but that wasn’t even important to me. It was when I was asked to sign the book. I’m pretty sure I chuckled and looked at the person in disbelief. “You know I’m not famous, right, so this just seems weird.” And the person winked at me and said, “But should you become famous, I’ll be the one with your very first signature,” so I made sure to write inside the book, alongside my signature, ‘This is my very first signature’.

My first author interview by our newspaper was just another first where I acted out excitedly like an ADHD child (my son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was younger, so that is not meant to be offensive to anyone suffering from such), but afterward when the paper was released, I was afraid to go out in public, and I considered a disguise. I know, it was a little grandiose of me, because once I did go out in public to a concert they were hosting at the park, I was humbled and thinking, “Does nobody recognize me? Hello! It’s me! I was in your morning paper. Nobody? Nothing?”

But then returning home, a neighbor I’d never met pulled up alongside me and said, “Wow, all those years you’ve been living there and I never knew you were an author,” so I reverted back to my head-down, tails-between-the-legs, scuffing-the-shoes embarrassment, because the person that acknowledged recognizing me also acknowledged knowing where I lived, so then I had regrets about coming out locally.

Local conversations: “Hey, you know our neighbor down the road writes books? Yeah, she’s got a bunch of ‘em. She was in the paper and everything.” “Really? I didn’t know we had anyone famous around here. I betcha she’s the one in that house. I’ve always loved that house. It’s huge and has that big underground pool and -.” “No, she’s the one next to it.” “You mean that woman that never mows the lawn and leaves her garbage cans out by the side of the road for weeks on end?” “Yep, that one.”

Then there was my first book fair where I got to meet other authors for the first time in person. I was so busy getting books signed by them that I didn’t even tend to my own table. And the first library that stocked my books. That excitement died real fast, though, because then instead of people buying books at my events, they’d ask, “Are your books in the library? Excellent, I’ll look them up the very next time I go there.”

But it was my third event that led me to NewAge Publishing, now FreeBird Express Publishing. A 17-year-old girl cradling my book like a baby and following me with her eyes everywhere and looking at me as astutely as I did my English courses in school, hanging on every word I said, until I did my reading and my Q & A session, and she could finally run up to the table to get a signature. She proudly announced to me, “I’m a writer, too, and it’s my dream to get published.”

I provided her my information and told her to send me her manuscript and I’d read it and the delight and gratitude in her eyes was the most legit thing you can get out of people in this world – and it’s the inspiration I live for. Reading her manuscript, I found her to be amazingly talented. That natural talent that others spend years and decades of their life trying to hone. Her writing reminded me of myself at her age. To this day, I can brag that my writing in my youth was brilliant. The words flowed like magic. The voice and beauty of poetic youth before that free-flowing creativity and originality became rules, rules, and more rules. Hey, kind of just like growing up!

But more than anything, it reminded me of everything I went through and the thousand heart-breaks I endured in just having that innate passion to write and that deeply-ingrained desire to share it with the world, and in all that time, I had never met anyone, personally, in that field. Not an author. Not another writer. Not a literary agent or a publisher. No one that shared my passion. No one that shared my dream. No one to guide and help and support me other than the classes and courses that I paid for. It was a very lonely life. And seeing her, I just couldn’t fathom the idea of her going through the excruciating disappointment and loneliness and self-questioning and struggles with self esteem and self-worthiness like I did, because every rejection just kept telling me that I wasn’t good enough.

In fact, even after I had over a dozen books published, by the three other publishers, and then myself, I STILL questioned if I was any good. I’d feel embarrassed at events that people would feel like they wasted money, so I set my pricing as low as possible. None of my friends read books, so they wouldn’t read mine, and, to this day, I can’t say if my side of the family has actually ever read my books or not because they’ve never commented on it, other than vaguely. … Until I got my first fan mail by a complete stranger. Short and simple. “I love your books!” And that’s all I needed to hear, and there was no giving up FOREVER, and I would write and publish books for as long as I lived, because even if there was ONE person in the world that loved my books and was counting on more of them, I was going to follow through. That one single piece of fan mail made me more determined than ever to do the best I could possibly do and to keep trying, keep going, and to finally start believing in myself for once and for all.

And that’s all this beautiful, young adult needed to hear when she was questioning herself and her abilities. She wasn’t the first author’s book I helped along in the publishing process, but meeting her was the moment that I realized I wanted to be a publisher. 15 years of my life spent searching for a publisher and dreaming of getting a big one, crying over my hundreds of rejections and celebrating over my acceptances, I never imagined I’d become one, but throughout the years, more and more authors, writers, and everyday people began coming to me in search of services and advice and a desire to have their story told and shared with the world.

I never thought anything could feel more profound than seeing my book in Publisher’s Weekly, or doing my first Barnes N Noble event, or accomplishing every single dream that I’d started as just a teenager myself (except for NewYork Times Bestseller) … until I spent a two-week bender getting a manuscript prepared for publication and was able to just say, “Merry Christmas”, to that extremely bright and talented teenage girl, with the attachment of her finalized book to become her very first published book. Being a part of the path that leads to the publication of other people’s stories and books is THE most rewarding feeling I’ve ever felt – far more satisfying than anything I’ve ever done as a writer and author myself. It’s how a parent feels when they invest 18 years into raising their children and then it’s time to let go and see them off into the world, following them with pride wherever they go and secret self-congratulations of, “I did that. I created and raised that beautiful child to be the adult he/she is now.” while remaining there for support and guidance every step of the way.

Being a publisher is about making other people’s dreams your own and helping them to fulfill them. It’s giving people a voice and letting their story be heard throughout the world. It’s about reaching as many people as you possibly can in the world just to give them that one small touch of inspiration that could impact them and their lives forever. I can’t say there’s anything grander or more fulfilling than that.

AUthor INterviews

Youth is not an age; it is a feeling. It took me until I was 31 years old, after 14 years professionally writing, to begin feeling that adult restlessness of the mundane. I didn’t just act old – I felt it, and it began to sabotage my writing. The adventures and experiences I’d had in my youth, I felt, I could no longer get away with as an adult.

One night my son wanted to watch Hunger Games for our fun night. I became so inspired that I sat cross-legged, too-close-to-the-TV, nearly pulling an overnighter in watching these YA movies. I went to the library and literally had a 6-month YA reading binge, and refused to watch any movies other than young adult.

First Book Signing

Blind Fate Over a year’s time, I sat down and wrote my favorite series ever, the 6-book Modules series that begins with The Reform – a young-adult dystopian action/adventure with a lot of unruly behavior and humor – and I absolutely fell in love with Catina Salsbury, whose prodigy intelligence equals her stubbornness to simply do as she’s told, as The Modules fosters growing kids at a much faster developmental and educational rate in their attempts at creating a new era of Intelligent Design, currently the first 3 titles in the series that have been published. As I read the books to my children, Catina infiltrated our home, carried into my kids’ schools, and numerous YA and adult homes, hitting number 1 in 2 categories in July. I began having adventures just to have adventures, making moments just to have life-long memories, and experiencing the world again through the excited eyes of youth, versus the tired eyes of adulthood. My best reviews and fan mail for my young-adult books have come from … adults? It is so very inspiring to me to know that my books are not only encouraging youth in our young-adults, but regenerating youth in our adults.

This doesn’t mean I’ve stopped writing for adults. The Modules series provoked inspiration that led me to publishing 5 books in 5 months – other adult titles that include Glimp$es, a psychological thriller, and Blind Fate, a killer thriller, and now another one of my prized-novels, Otherland, written for adults, but PG-13 enough for young adults is up in line to hopefully be published next.

Otherland Otherlandis enrolled in the KindleScout competition. You can nominate this book through 10/20/15 for it to be my next published book and get Otherland for free, as well. My website www.almondieshampine.com features promotions, giveaways, and contests, and additional social media sites that provide free-reading inspirations. Being an adult is difficult enough, but when you combine feelings of youth, you’ve got the energy and the heart to believe that anything is possible, and go after it.

Almondie: I started writing at a very young age, once I found a love for reading. Back then we had channels 3, 5 & 9, and Dad manned the remote, so there wasn’t much TV-watching for entertainment on those rainy days. I was always motivated by contests, so I pretty much nailed every single reading and writing contest there was growing up. Like any kid, we go after that which gives us the greatest reward and praise, and besides my grades, it was reading, writing, and singing.

So first I wanted to be a microbiologist that would find the cure for cancer, until I recognized that my legal blindness didn’t fare well with microscopic things. Then I wanted to be on Broadway, singing, acting, and dancing. It took an epiphany at 19 years old, that light-bulb moment, “I want to be a professional writer.” Which is funny when you think about it, due to all my awards, the fact that I spent my summers working to get that precious typewriter for Christmas, and that I’d spent so much of my time reading and writing, even having maintained journals since childhood, which I still maintain to this day. I wrote my first ‘real’ novel at 19 years old and was published by 20.I’ve been writing ever since, 14 years now, and have published two literary stories, a short e-book, 40 short stories, articles and poems, and 8 novels.

Ani: Which were your biggest struggles when you were just starting?

Almondie: I became a single mom at the young age of 19 and by 21 was a single mom of two. With childcare costs, my youth (and dare I say my gender? J ), one full-time job wasn’t nearly enough to pay the bills and support the household. It was more like three jobs. The best time to do my writing was late at night, but it wasn’t conducive to babies waking at 5:00 am when I hadn’t yet gone to bed. When you have to exclusively rely on a childcare provider to be reliable in order to keep one’s job, I lost a lot of them that way during that time. I even had one sitter drop my son off at my job while I was in the middle of working (and I was serving Bill Keeler that night). Fortunately, he and his family were very understanding as my son ran around their table, and I even got a $100 tip!!!

Things weren’t set up then as they are now. Back then, if you wanted to find a publisher, you had to print everything, up to your entire manuscript, and send it snail mail with an SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope), then pray that they would remember to mail it back. When you’re a poor, single mom, such financial investments were hard to justify. I still managed to get three books published – out of hundreds of contests, submissions, and otherwise.

There was a point in my early twenties, still single mom, when I was working two full-time jobs, doubling up on college classes (got my Bachelor’s degree in 2 years), and freelancing full-time. I recorded my hours and was putting in 100-120 hours a week. That was the time I got the approximately 40 publications. 14 years later (and still a single mom), I now write full-time and freelance on the side.

Ani: Tell us about the biggest publishing mistakes you made in the beginning?

Almondie: Oh boy! I was 19 and writing my 3rd novel – finally having been able to buy a computer. Prior to that, everything had been handwritten. It was a series idea, the Strength Series, inspired by my favorite author at that time, V.C. Andrews, and my similar upbringing. I had such high hopes. I went over it and over it, until it was as perfect as I could make it. I instantly got a response from an agent, requesting the entire manuscript. The first book I’d ever sent out. I was beyond excited.

Weeks later it was returned to me with a rejection. Like most rejections, they don’t specifically tell you the reason. I read through it, read through it, read through it, checked for every error. I couldn’t understand. I wrote many more novels, received many more rejections where none of them ever asked to read the manuscript, so that made me recognize the opportunity I had had right from the get-go with the very first novel I sent out.

When I was 28 years old, I realized I didn’t have any memories before 7, or between 7 and 14 years old. I know, I know, you’d think one would pick up on stuff like that. Well, when you’re missing memories, you don’t know they’re missing. Once I recognized it, I began attempting to recover all those missing years of my life. A couple years ago, I found the first book in the Strength series on my computer. I began to read it, and I was totally impressed, thinking I was a more talented writer when I was 19. But then something happened, and it was clear as day, 2/3rd through the book. When 7 year old Strength graduated from 1st grade, and moved onto 2nd grade – which means turning 8 – she was suddenly living a 14 year olds’ lifestyle – shopping trips, parties, boys, and a lot of expectations at home.

All those years that I’d been missing between 7 and 14, the chronological order of my life literally went from 7 to 14, and it had all made complete sense in my head. So when I was writing my character, I also skipped those 7 years. THAT’s why I was rejected, and I have to know, to this day, that I probably would have landed a publishing contract on my very first book sent out, and a series, even better, but because of all the years missing in my own childhood, I’d made that ONE huge mistake of also missing all those years in my character’s life.

Ani: How are you building your audience/readership?

Almondie: The biggest thing that always irked me about my favored authors was having to wait a year before their next book came out, so four hours of bliss reading their book, and then a year delayed gratification. Well, a lot of things happen in that year of waiting – we find new favored authors or we stop reading. Imagine going to a restaurant, finding a favored meal, then going back to that restaurant for a year and having that meal unavailable? You’re either going to find another dish that is more frequently available or you’re going to stop going to that restaurant.

My priority in building an audience and readership is actually being available. I provide a service. That service is my writing. My audience is hungry readers, whether they’re looking for some night-out entertainment, some deeply-needed inspiration, or answers to internal conflicts. I’m not going to make them go hungry. I’ve gotten five full-length books out there in five months, in the preferred format of those Kindle lovers and those paperback lovers and those enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. I’ve got a storehouse of novels just waiting to be released, and I continue to write a novel every other month. Not just for adults, but young adults, and children as well. Not just one genre, but several, because just because I might want pizza one day doesn’t mean I won’t want a burger the next. Flexible, versatile, and available. My loyalty pledge to my readers.

Ani: Which social media do you prefer most and why?

Almondie: Every social media outlet has pros and cons, each of them offering a niche that others do not. I started with a website and myspace. Now it’s website, facebook, facebook business page, google plus, twitter, third-parties. Still trying to figure out pinterest and haven’t yet touched Instagram.

Ani: How do you engage with your readers?

Almondie: I want my readers to see me as a normal every-day person just like them. I’m a business owner, a writer, a marketer, and more, but I’m also a mother, a home-owner, a woman. I know that regardless of how much I love V.C. Andrews, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Nora Roberts, James Patterson, and even Susan Collins and Veronica Roth and many, many more, I’ve never had the guts to find them on social media and say . . . ‘Send Friend Request’ to them. I’ve never sent an email telling them how much their stories changes my life, and how much I admire them. Why? Because I was intimidated.

But I tell you what. The greatest day in my 14-year writing career was my first fan mail. It was simply written by a stranger that said, “I love your books!” Yes, it made me cry, because it made me feel that good. I try to keep my website interactive and encourage readers to not feel that same intimidation I always did. I post funny pictures and pictures of my family. I go out into my community and engage people – readers, young aspiring writers. I serve homemade food at my events. I offer open arms and do a lot of volunteer work. I’m not engaging with readers as a professional writer. I’m engaging with people, just like me, who have loved, lost, struggled to survive, had great moments, poor moments, have raised or are raising families, and just trying to get the best out of life they possibly can, because it’s not easy, no matter who you are or what you do.

Ani: What helps you stay productive?

Almondie: My mind works non-stop. Yes, bad insomnia. I think I once used the analogy that my mind functions much like an overactive bladder. If you’re not constantly eliminating it, you’ll get filled up, then pee your pants. If I don’t keep my mind productive, it will spill out in inappropriate places or at inappropriate times. The last thing a person wants to listen to when they’re winding down and having some relaxing social interaction is a brainiac speaking philosophy or sociology, or a psychology major analyzing and performing psychological profiles on strangers. LOL. Or worse, her own friends. They HATE that.

At my most recent event, where I did readings for my three new releases, and spoke about the two additional releases coming out that month, they asked me if I had any idea what my next project would be and I said, “7”. They looked at me confused and I said, “I have 7 projects I’m working on.” I don’t have any problems in staying productive, because me satisfying my mind makes my life better and allows me to get some sleep. It’s me relaxing that I’m still trying to figure out. I need an off-switch on my brain.

Ani: How do you deal with criticism and bad reviews?

Almondie: Other than the typical hundreds of agent rejections I’ve gotten throughout the years, there’s never really been any criticism – knock on wood. It’s more like been, “Your work is marketable and has an audience, but we can’t take on any more clients at this time” or, “I am not the right agent for this work, so query another”. I’ve been fortunate that I have not received a negative or poor review, or any type of direct criticism (still knocking on wood). But I am a perfectionist, so if I did receive it, I’d probably be like the chef who got a poor review on their ratatouille. I’d invite the critic back to sample another one of my dishes, hope that they gave me enough specifics in their criticism or poor review for me to make the ratatouille better.

Ani: Where do you get inspiration?

Almondie: Everywhere. My past, my present, my images of the future. The seasons and individual moments. Every book I read, movie I watch, every person I interact with. My children. Our adventures. When I become down about the marketing of the work and the extraordinary hours spent trying to reach as many people as I can, to benefit and inspire as many as possible, and all the marketing means less time writing, all it takes is my ten year old daughter coming home from school and saying, “Mom, I’m famous. Everyone knows I’m your daughter and that you write books,” and I remember why I’m doing all of this to begin with. My inspiration is meant to inspire others, and that’s all I need as my most powerful motivator.

Ani: Where can people learn more about you?

Almondie: I’m not really all that hard to find, being as how I’m the only one with my name. My website offers information on all the books, myself, my family, free story blogs, and contests at www.almondieshampine.com. Joining my mailing list provides access to anyone being able to reach out to me, and I always email back. I typically use twitter for same-day news – my handle being @authorashampine. www.facebook.com/almondieincorporated is the business page that provides updates and features stories, excerpts, and otherwise. www.facebook.com/almondieshampine provides access to direct messaging, should someone want to talk to me directly. I’m also a part of the Goodreads community and do special promotions/giveaways through them as well, Barnes & Noble, and of course, Amazon.

Your Neighbor: Durhamville novelist Almondie Shampine spreads love of literacy, creative through books Novelist Almondie Shampine of Durhamville poses in her home on Aug. 3 with her books, from left, “The Reform,” “The Modules,” and “Glimp$es.” Her goal is to promote literacy, encourage creativity, and prompt a lifelong love for reading in all ages. Photo Special to the Dispatch by Mike Jaquays By Mike Jaquays, Dispatch Correspondent

Posted: 08/15/15, 8:21 PM EDT | Updated: 1 day ago

Almondie Shampine works on her latest fiction novel in her Durhamville home on Aug. 3. She will read passages from and discuss her books “The Modules,” “The Reform,” and “Glimp$es,” plus give previews of her next releases “Intelligent Design” and “Blind Fate,” this Thursday at the Sherrill-Kenwood Free Library from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Photo Special to the Dispatch by Mike Jaquays DURHAMVILLE >> Novelist Almondie Shampine’s kids are never sure who will show up for a visit when their mom is working on her latest book.

“When I write a book, I become the characters,” Shampine explained. “It can get a little crazy around here. I feel everything that happens, and I don’t write the books -- the characters do.”

Her love for books goes back to her youngest memories, to even before she could truly appreciate the words inside.

“Right from the get-go, I was into books. They’ve helped me with so many aspects of life, not just entertainment,” she said.

Shampine has a wide variety of life experiences to draw her inspirations. She attended seven schools and four colleges, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology: Applied Behavioral Analysis, giving her “great material for my thrillers,“ she said. She has moved over 30 times during her life, and held almost just as many different jobs before settling into writing, editing, and marketing her books full-time in 2014.

She began writing professionally at 19, and was published for the first time the following year with the short story “Monster Down the Street” in a children’s anthology. She has since published seven books, and more than 40 short stories, poems, and articles, four of which were award winners.

Her six-part Modules series, telling of a dystopian world in the vein of “Hunger Games,” is geared towards young adults. It features the brilliant yet unruly Catina Salisbury -- or Cat, depending on her mood:

“State recruiters came when we were 12 years old to take me and my twin sister from the only home we’d ever known, as a new reformed education that guaranteed our futures, per the tests that don’t lie. Personality testing determined our fated color, where like stayed with like. My ever-pleasing compliant sister tested Pink, and I Purple, and my fight began to keep us together, forever and always.

“But once a part of The Modules, you could never escape. Through psychological programming, compliance therapy, brain-washing techniques, hypnosis, and emotions therapy, they controlled you to be the future of their design. I had the highest IQ in the global nation for 12-18. I was the prodigy they were looking for to sell their intelligent design, but I was a Purple through and through, and none of their techniques worked on me.

“Gradually, the other Purple’s began disappearing, until I was the only one left. Where they went, no one knew. We were forbidden from asking questions. They alienated me from everyone else, experimented on me, doing everything they could to break me and change my color, but as long as my sister was somewhere out there, kept apart from me, I would never stop fighting. A prodigy deviant and my conspiracy theorist father’s legacy, I would never stop fighting. They’d have to kill me first.”

“Glimp$es” poses an intriguing question: “Would you pay a million dollars for a glimpse of the future at any time of your choosing? Could you handle it if you did?” An adult psychological thriller with spiritual and psychic contents, “Glimp$es” offers a captivating story blurring the line between illusion and reality. “Since someone’s own predictions of his or her future may differ significantly from the future that is shown, will they make the future one of their own choosing, or simply fall into the hands of fate forever?” Shampine asks.

“The Reform,” “The Modules,” and “Glimp$es” are available in both paperback and digital formats in the mid-York library system, Kindle, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Ingram, and GoodReads. Intelligent Design and Blind Fate are currently available on preorder.

Over the next decade she hopes to release some 60 to 70 books, and would like to get movie rights, especially for “The Modules.” Once son Bradon Lenhart, 13, and daughter Jasmine Shampine, 10, are grown, Shampine wants to travel with the goal of writing a book in every state.

Her kids are already following in her footsteps.

“Both my kids are very creative,” she said. “Jasmine tries writing her own books and Bradon dabbles in writing stories. We do our research together.”

Shampine writes for all ages and in a variety of genres including thrillers, romance, adventure, horror, paranormal, fantasy, contemporary, and literary suspense novels.

Libraries have always been a big part of her life, so Shampine wants to make sure there are copies available in as many as possible for public borrowing.

“If not for libraries growing up, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she explained. “The library taught me everything I needed to know about life, outside of school and life itself.”

She also hopes to be able to visit schools and teach writing classes to reach out to young people with the joy of reading.

Helping to promote literacy, encourage creativity, and prompt a lifelong love for reading is the main driving force behind working on her books, Shampine explained.

“I want to give a little something back to the world,” she said. “I want to encourage creativity in children, teens and adults, and teach them the love of reading.”

Personal appearances, like this week’s visit to the Sherrill-Kenwood Free Library, and an earlier one at the Oneida Library, are helping give her a new, more public push behind her novels. Shampine credited Bradon for coaxing her to seek publicity for her work.

“My son encouraged me to go out into the community and make a public face,” she said. “When he was asked what he wanted for Christmas, he said just to be able to carry my books around at school and to let everybody know I was his mom.”

The book signing event at the Sherrill-Kenwood Free Library is this Thursday, Aug. 20, from 6:30-8 p.m. Shampine will read passages from and discuss “The Reform,” “The Modules,” and “Glimp$es,” plus give previews of her next releases “Intelligent Design” and “Blind Fate.” Personally autographed copies will be available, as well as spaghetti, snacks, and beverages.

There is a sweepstakes giveaway for free books, and participants can sign up now through the end of the event at the library. The Sherrill-Kenwood Free Library is located at 543 Sherrill Road in Sherrill.

Featured Interview With Almondie Shampine by by Vinny O'Hare at BookReaderMagazine Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?I have lived in over 30 different locations. My current home is Durhamville, NY I’ve had for 5 years, but have only stayed in 2 years at a time. School years started out in Central Square. Then DeRuyter, Cazenovia, Canastota, Vernon, Syracuse, Oneida, Utica – all in New York, and I lived in North Carolina as well. In 10th&11th grade, I went to 5 different high schools. Talk about always being the new girl! The upside – I got to go to several proms

I have two children ages 10 and 13, whom I’ve been single mom to the majority of their lives, and we’ve taken in a little dog, a cat, and adopted a fish. Our other pet is TwoFlix – our car, inspired by ‘How to Train a Dragon’ (Toothless), but my daughter kept saying TwoFlix, so it stuck for the car’s name. When TwoFlix dies, he will become our very own Car-Fort in the backyard.

I’ve had as many varying jobs as I’ve moved. I’ve done everything from working in a deli, retail, waitressing, bartending, being a legal secretary, administrative assistant, being a counselor for the developmentally disabled, and a mental health therapy aide for the state. Oh, I was also a supervisor for Sprint once . . . and a professional singer, and a street saleswoman, a cook – Yeah, you name it, I’ve probably done it. Have I ever been a paid pooper scooper? Yep, I worked on a farm. Toilet cleaner? Absolutely. And I excelled at every single one of them . . . until I got fired, or ‘laid-off’, as I call it, or resigned. I’ve always been a perfectionist, even though I’m so utterly flawed.

For my secondary education, I went through six of those. I got certifications for freelancing, for children’s literature, for being a chemical substance abuse counselor, and tripled up on my Associates/Bachelor Programs where I got a BS in Psychology: Applied Behavioral Analysis, a Minor in computers and chemical abuse, graduating with 4.0’s. It got me a decent scholarship to Syracuse University for my Masters. It did not get me a job, and thereafter I became overqualified for managers to want to hire me.

Now I work full-time as a freelancer, publisher, editor, cover-designer, event scheduler, public speaker, social-media professional, web-designer – OH, and an author, which is the part I like BEST. No, actually, the part I like best is that I can’t get fired and I have no intention of ever resigning, because I’ve finally found a job I’m happy with.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?I’m sure my first book was used as a teething-ring to drool over and chew on while my teeth were coming in. Dad owned the remote for the TV, so it was a blessing when I learned how to read. I was hooked from the very beginning. I won all the reading-log contests. I seriously annoyed my teachers, “So, if I read the bible, does that count as one book or 66?” Perhaps I started off as a bit of a nerd – just a bit.

I began writing when I learned how to write letters, words, sentences. My first book was in elementary about a lost goose. Then I illustrated one about fish. I got the majority of those writing awards. Old school friends don’t even flinch when they know I’m a professional author now. They’re like, “Yeah, I figured.” I was the student in the back of the class writing stories while the teacher just thought I was an avid note-taker. Eventually I became the employee that would write on my bathroom breaks, and my lunch and dinner breaks. Everywhere I went, I was either reading or writing. I wrote my first full-length novel at 18 when I made the decision to do it professionally, and that is what I’ve been doing ever since.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?It began with R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps, BabySitters Club, the BoxCar Children, then graduated to all of V.C. Andrews. While waiting for more, I got into Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Diane Steele, then Patterson, Grisham, Lindsay Taylor, Harlequin, Historical Romances, Nora Roberts, Nicolas Sparks. When I began my six book series, The Modules, I dove into all of Patterson’s Maximum Ride, Roth’s Hunger Games, Collin’s Divergent Series, Orwell, etc . . . I am a fan of every genre, which is why I practically write every genre. Horror, thriller, suspense, drama, memoir, literary classics, romance, satire, fantasy, sci-fi.

You will find other interviews where I speak of books saving my life. The reality of my childhood made the fiction of books my best friend. Through books like BoxCar children, I found ways to get away. Through books like BabySitter’s Club, I learned how to make money. Through books like V.C. Andrews, I learned how to cope, how to endure, how to survive, and not lose hope. Horror books served to show me that there are worse horrors in the world that I was happy to not have to experience.

My experiences, my life, my children and all that I listed regarding different locations, meeting hundreds of thousands of different people, and all my many varying jobs, and educations inspire my ideas for my books; however, it is my readers that inspire my writing, because as long as I can know that I am inspiring, maybe helping, providing hope to children and adults alike, I am 100 percent inspired to keep writing.

Tell us a little about your latest book?I had 3 books published in the month of May, 2015: The Reform, Glimp$es, and The Modules, available in both digital and paperback formats. Two more will be released end of August, 2015: Intelligent Design & Blind Fate. I am frequently doing promotions, sweepstakes, and events, one that is coming up July 26th, 2015 for an entire 7 day price-crunching event. The easiest way to become advised of the bargains and new releases is through my website or Facebook. Free books is never a bad thing, especially until you know an author and that they won’t fail to disappoint you.

The Modules Series, beginning with the Reform, is a young adult dystopian action-adventure that can be enjoyed by adults as well. It features Catina Salsbury, who winds up being the prodigy they’re looking for in the new reform, but with a very big personality glitch, as they call it. She tested inconclusive, a Purple, in predictable traits. She’s belligerent, sarcastic, rebellious, can neither be controlled, nor her behaviors predicted. In an education/job system that mandates like stay with like, Catina absolutely refuses to be separated from her twin sister, Kadrin, who tested Pink – optimistic, complacent, enthusiastic, and trusting. As her conspiracy theorist father’s favored child, he taught her everything he knew, including his distrust and paranoia, but also the tricks of the trade. Her rebellion attracts the attention of both the Commanding Officer of High Intelligence and The President, where he winds up getting stuck with the job of trying to tame the unruly Cat, break her Purple personality, and graduate her into a more controllable and predictable one. By the time the second book, The Modules, starts, she is the only Purple remaining and they are more intent than ever to break her, though the Commanding Officer secretly encourages her personality. 14 being old enough to work, following an accelerated education, she begins balancing work meant to break her while continuing her studies in the Business of Medical Sciences. She develops some really cool and scary abilities from the Mind-Enhancement drugs they were giving her, where the sci-fi/fantasy elements come in. No longer just a prodigy that knows six different languages, advanced physics, and all the words in dictionaries, she comes to learn that she’d also been trained to fight, and even to kill, which makes her a bigger threat than they ever could have imagined. Especially when she finds the formula that they will kill to get their hands on.

Glimp$es is an adult psychological thriller that features a psychic, technological, and spiritual design in providing a glimpse of the future of the characters choosing for a hefty price of one million dollars, but the money becomes the least of their problems when those unrealistic and far-fetched futures begin to come true.